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MEMBER DIARY

Cap and Tax Threatening Texas Jobs

In November, Texas voters will go to the polls and choose between two starkly different visions for Texas.The first vision is one of limited government that has fostered an environment for good Texas jobs, economic growth, boundless opportunity, and greater personal freedom.

The second, favored by Gov. Rick Perry’s opponent, is a vision of more government spending, more taxation, and expanded government control over every aspect of your life.He supports the goals Obama-care.He calls spending cuts by state agencies “Soviet-style” governance.And he supports California-style emissions regulations, which would cripple industry in Texas.

In fact, if you wonder why Bill White is an Obama-like liberal, look no further than the issue of cap and trade…more accurately known as cap and tax, because it will cap our economy and tax away our jobs.

While Texas leaders fight the Obama Administration’s job-killing regulatory policies in court, the former mayor of Houston—our nation’s largest energy producer—advocates policies that would decimate the very industry the Bayou City was built on.

The Democratic nominee for governor went so far as to send an advisory memo to Obama’s chief of staff, telling him how to sell cap and tax to the American public!

If cap and tax passes, it will cost the average Texas family more than $1,200 a year.Yet Gov. Perry’s liberal opponent seems to care more about appeasing the far-left ideologues than protecting average Texans.Worse, he has concerns about cap and tax because it doesn’t go far enough in controlling carbon emissions.In other words, he thinks a $1,200 average tax on every family in Texas is letting us off too easy.

The wholesale destruction of the traditional energy industry in Texas is just one bad election away.The road Obama and his allies are on is perilous for U.S. jobs, and no state will be hit harder than Texas, the nation’s energy capital.

As a state, Texas has pursued a path that provides cleaner air and legitimate incentives to develop green energy, not draconian regulations against fossil fuel producers.Those common-sense measures have made Texas the leading producer of wind energy in the nation.Texas is the fifth-largest producer of wind power in the world—a result of the free market, not regulations.

But liberals like Mr. White want to go a different direction.He wants to add $3,000 to the price of every car, shut down valuable industries, and raise the cost of most basic goods—from fuel to food to medicine.

We must keep Texas a bastion of opportunity and innovation.We know that government does not create wealth and that the road to prosperity is not paved with tax hikes, onerous regulations and excessive spending.